Range anxiety has been a major concern for people considering making the transition from traditional ICE vehicles to EVs, and car manufacturers have been striving to make new models as efficient as possible in order to offer drivers higher ranges. But mainstream automakers are not the only ones concerned with developing highly efficient EVs.
A student team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) that calls themselves TUfast Eco has also been working on developing a long-range electric car. Their single-seat Muc022 vehicle has just become the longest-range electric vehicle in the world by driving 1,598 miles (2,573.79 kilometers) on a single battery charge.
And what makes the feat even more impressive is that they set a new world record for EV range by using a 15.5kWh battery. Yeah, that's right! Muc022's battery is six times smaller than the unit fitted on the 2023 Lucid Air, the production car that can currently travel the farthest on a full charge (516 miles), and seven times smaller than the 100-kWh battery on the Mercedes-Benz EQXX prototype, which has a range of 747 miles.
The TUfast Eco team competed for the new world record at the Munich airport as part of the IAA Mobility auto show. They drove the car in an airplane hangar to eliminate weather variables and managed to break the previous world record of 1,000 miles (1,608.54 km) set in 2017 by IT Asset Partners in California.
It took the German students no less than six days to perform their record attempt. They managed to reach the 1,000-mile threshold in four days and spent the following two days further raising the official bar until they completely drained the battery. The end result beats the previous record by an impressive 60 percent.
Photo: TUfast Eco/ MCube / Viktoriya Zayika
As for the Muc022 vehicle the team used for the feat, it's a single-seat electric car with a teardrop-like body that was developed last year and competed in efficient electric car competitions, such as the Shell Eco Marathon. Since the team replaced it with the Muc023 for this year's edition of the contest, the 2022 car was repurposed for the range record attempt.
The TUfast Eco engineers modified the vehicle to make it as aerodynamic and as light as possible, while also installing the larger 15.5kWh battery. The aero-sculpted car tips the scales at just 374 pounds (170 kilograms) and is powered by a small single electric permanent-magnet synchronous motor outputting just 400 watts. It achieves a drag coefficient of 0.159, which is lower than any vehicle on the market.
In terms of energy consumption, the all-electric Muc022 returned 103 miles/kWh (0.6 kWh/100 km), which makes it the most efficient EV in existence. To give you some perspective, the Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX prototype has an energy consumption of 8 miles/kWh.
The team's newest Muc023 is lighter and even more aerodynamic than its predecessor, so who knows? Maybe the students could break their own world record one day.
College students seem to be in constant competition with the big car brands nowadays, pushing the limits of EV performance. Just last week, a student-built EV called "Mythen" developed by Academic Motorsports Club Zurich (AMZ), which includes science students from ETH Zurich and Lucerne University, was recognized as the world's fastest-accelerating EV after it sprinted from a standstill to 62 mph (100 kph) in 0.956 seconds. Maybe it's a good idea to let the youngsters take over!
After spending a few years as a copy editor, Ancuta decided to put down the eraser and pick up the writer's pencil. Her favorites subjects are unusual car designs, travel trailers and everything related to the great outdoors. Full profile
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